Russians & Ukrainians & Mongols & Lithuanians
I like to talk.
Ask anyone; I cannot shut up. I fire-hose information. If something is interesting, repetition is added to volume. I sandbagged my former boss at 8 am so consistently he would hold up his hand as I started speaking and say, “Coffee. 10 minutes. Talk.” I suspect my presence on some spectrum.
It’s repetition that can render me a bore. What facilitates management processes at work can engender yawns in personal conversation. Just because I find a topic interesting does not mean that interest is shared. Sometimes my needle sticks.1
My sin of repetition is evidently in play with respect to the Mongol Empire.2
I say this because I recently opined on some point of history, in the course of which I mentioned the Mongols. I said I found them fascinating and my friend said, “I know.”
But the Mongols ARE fascinating.
I discovered this civilization more than 10 years ago with Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast.3 I have been periodically blathering about the Mongols ever since, because without them world history is incomplete. Having discovered a recent interview with an expert in Russian history (see below), I have reason to blather once more.
Many do not comprehend the impact on the world of Temujin, the Genghis Khan,4 and the Mongol Empire he founded.5
Part of the reason for this gap in history is sheer embarrassment.6 It is profoundly embarrassing to talk about the Mongols. If they defeated you, why would you want to remember that? If you prospered because of them, why would you want to admit that? If a historical event isn’t mentioned, it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen; it simply may not fit a country’s nationalist narrative. The problem for everyone else is that this history fits Mongolia’s nationalist narrative perfectly.
There is reason enough to be obscurant. A picture is worth a thousand words:7
The Mongols conquered or destroyed many of the major cultures or civilizations in Eurasia during the 13th Century:8 Western Xia China in 1209,9 Khwarazm Persia in 1221,10 Northern Jin China in 1234,11 Kievan Rus in 1240,12 the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad in 1258,13 and Southern Song China in 1279.14 The military tactics and strategies of the Mongols,15 as realized by their or anyone’s greatest general, Subutai,16 were easily hundreds of years ahead of any of their opponents, and formed the foundation for the modern military strategy of Deep Battle.1718
It was as if the Klingons from Star Trek had appeared on Earth…in the 13th Century.
37 million people, or 11% of Earth’s population at that time, were killed by the Mongols.19
Now reflect upon that destruction, and consider how the Mongols changed the world 800 years into the future, our present.
In the early 1200s, Khwarazm Persia was majority Sunni. The Mongols killed up to 90% of the population.20 Today, Iranian Persia is majority Shia.
In the early 1200s, the Abbasid Caliphate was a bright star in Earth’s scientific firmament. The destruction of Baghdad is widely considered to have heralded the end of Islam’s Golden Age.21
In the early 1200s, China was divided into several states. The Mongols conquered each in their turn. Interestingly, conquering China in the short term may have united it in the long term, as the mass number of people fleeing the Mongols in the north helped merge the northern and southern parts of the country.22 Nevertheless, China would take over 700 years to return to the pinnacle of the world political hierarchy.
This brings us to the raison d'être of this article: the war in Ukraine,23 and an expression of some personal cultural pride. The seeds for this war were planted over 700 years ago. Russia and Ukraine are in conflict now because the Mongols and the Lithuanians,24 my ancestors, influenced their cultures in the past.
In the early 1200s, Kievan Rus was a collection of city state republics, vibrant yet disorganized, nevertheless culturally advanced.25 The Mongols killed or enslaved almost everyone.26 Between 1237 and 1240, Kievan Rus was completely subdued. Kiev itself was almost completely razed. Only Novgorod and a few cities in the north escaped destruction. The cradle of Rus civilization, claimed by Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, was laid waste. The Russians would be Mongol slaves for 200 years.
Now as a general rule I don’t endorse alcoholism, but here I am willing to make an exception. That is because in 1241 alcoholism claimed Ögedei, Khan of the Mongol Empire, precipitating a succession crisis. This put a halt to the destruction of Europe.
The end of the Mongol invasion of Europe meant that Western Europe was intact and its neighbors were not.
With its development of democracy, capitalism, human rights, and the scientific method, Western European civilization was always going to be a candidate for top dog. The Mongols killing, enslaving, or maiming all other cultural and societal contenders didn’t hurt Western Europe’s chances.
Maim, indeed; the Mongols did more than clear a path for Western European hegemony for 500 years. In the following analysis27 and discussion of his book, The Story of Russia,28 Professor Orlando Figes, late of London College, details how 200 years of Mongol domination changed Russia forever.
According to Figes, the Byzantine tradition that the Russians inherited from Constantinople fused the idea of “state” and “sovereign” together within the person of the tsar. This informs the Russian idea of “power.” “Power,” in most languages, implies autonomous action; in Russian “власть,” or “vlast,” comes from power as a function of ownership of land. Figes says this patrimonial concept of power explains why, in the 1897 Russian Imperial Census, Tsar Nicholas II listed his occupation as “owner of Russia.”29
The Mongols reinforced this authoritarian sensibility.
By enslaving the Russians and removing personal agency, the Russians were made supplicants to power. In that part of the Mongol Empire that was Russia, economics was organized around military conscription and tribute, with the Mongols selecting Russian princes over whom they exercised suzerainty as designated tax collectors. There developed a sort of capitalism in what became Russia, but it was not entrepreneurial, as the state only knew force and brooked no dissent, nor competition.30 This was exemplified by Peter the Great, whose model of industrialization involved state-owned enterprises, managed by “state serfs.”31
This means that the way to accomplish things in Russia is through state coercion. It is understood foundationally. Communism in 1917 did not upend a system and change the game; only the players changed.
Now consider the vast, indefensible, steppe of eastern Russian territory, and the air of vulnerability it lends to Russia concerning barbarian attacks.32 It took the Mongols 74 years to subdue China, but only 3 years to sweep across Kievan Rus. Bringing advanced tactics, the composite bow, gunpowder, and literal artillery to bear (courtesy of the Chinese), the Mongols raised this sense of vulnerability to the level of perpetual, raging paranoia. Centuries later, this cultural paranoia of the East would be given succor from new paranoia of the West, courtesy of the French and Germans, specifically Napoleon and Hitler.
Statist, dictatorial, and paranoid are words which may be used to describe facets of Russian culture and mindset.
Such was the character of the Mongol Empire, the nation-state under which the future Russians became a subject people.
Ukrainian culture, however, is not Russian culture. Part of this is due to a culture’s native strength in its own homeland. Another part of the explanation for that difference lies with the Lithuanians.33
Lithuania provided cover to Ukraine’s culture so the influence of the Mongols was deflected and they did not become like the Russians.34
In 1241 the Mongols had just crushed the Poles35 and Hungarians,36 killing half of Hungary’s population, and were preparing to assault Vienna.37 With the death of Ögedei, Mongol forces halted. “Princes of the blood” were to return to Mongolia for a Kurultai to choose a new Great Khan.38 It did not happen for 5 years.39
But there were already problems within the Mongol ranks before Ögedei’s death. Because of charges of battlefield incompetence at a banquet celebrating the destruction of the Hungarians, Batu of House Jochi hated his cousin, Güyük of House Ögedei (who became the next Great Khan). The disintegration of the Mongol Empire had begun, with insults traded between cousins at dinner.40 Batu did not attend the Kurultai, but settled his forces on the Volga River. Thus was founded the Altan Orda, or Golden Horde.41
The retreat of Mongol forces to the east pulled other peoples along with them,42 and one of these peoples were the Lithuanians.43 The timing from the Lithuanian perspective could not have been better.
The end of the Mongol invasion of Europe meant that Lithuania was intact and its neighbors were not.
The last great pagan state of Europe, Lithuania was founded in 1236 at the start of the Mongol invasion.44 Lithuania would expand and eventually encompass most of what was once Kievan Rus.45 By 1320 most of the western Rus was annexed by Lithuania, and in 1321 Kiev itself came under Lithuanian control.46 In 1398, Vytautas the Great erected a castle in Crimea;47 Lithuania now spanned an area from the Baltic to the Black Sea.48
By this time, Lithuania was no longer just looking East. Culturally, Lithuania turned West. In 1387 this largest state in Europe went from pagan to Christian, converting to Catholicism; the Pope would send no more crusades against pagan Lithuania.49 Lithuania further bound itself to the West in union with Poland, through marriage between the Polish Queen Jadwiga and Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila in 1386, providing strength against the Golden Horde. The union was made formal in 1569 as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, now providing strength against Russia.5051
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a nation-state ahead of its time. A form of checks and balances existed upon monarchical power, and it had a legislature. In addition, Poland-Lithuania was, comparatively, ethnically and religiously tolerant for its era.52
Such was the character of Poland-Lithuania, the nation-state under which the future Ukrainians became a subject people.
By the 1790s, however, the Commonwealth was in decline. A major reform effort produced Europe’s first modern constitution, changing the Commonwealth into a modern federal state, no doubt influenced by the American experience. It’s more authoritarian neighbors were having none of it, and in 1795 Austria, Prussia, and Russia invaded. Lithuania was no more.
It is true that Lithuanian influence was felt the most in western Ukraine. It is also true that Ukraine was not always a willing vassal of Poland-Lithuania, and Ukrainians remained Orthodox.53 Nevertheless, a cultural bifurcation had occurred.54 It was enough to help Ukrainian culture stand firm against Mongol influence, and so the Ukrainians did not become Russians.55
So for the last 500 years, the 2 regions of ancient Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania have faced in opposite directions. The first faces East, the second West.
Thus Putin’s war on Ukraine makes dangerous sense within the framework of tsarist sovereignty, paranoia of “the other,” and a powerful origin story. It is even worse than that, however. Because Kievan Rus is foundational to Russian culture, one suspects that even if Putin fails, some future Russian despot will likewise pick up the mantle of tsar and again attempt to unite all of “Mother Russia.”
Perhaps we are seeing Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” theory made manifest.56 This is a very old fight. This is also a foundational battle. This is an Honor Culture which values power against a Dignity Culture which values rights.
If one was looking for just one reason to support Ukraine over Russia, there it is.
Russia and Ukraine are at war today because Mongols and Lithuanians shaped different regions of ancient Kievan Rus, as well as their descendants.
But imagine what the world would be like if Ögedei had not died, or if his son Güyük had not slandered his cousin. Individual people in history matter as well.
The impact on the world of Temujin, the Genghis Khan, and the Mongol Empire he founded, was and is profound.
I’ve said THAT before, I say it now, and I’ll say it again. Indeed, my wife has definitely heard it all before, and she definitely will again. She always has the same reaction to this story.
“Fucking Mongols.”
Acknowledgement of image author, User:Astrokey44, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=885439
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
One only knows the name of the most powerful woman in world history if one knows Mongol history. From 1241 to 1246 the widow of Ögedei, Töregene, ruled as Regent or Khatun (female Kagan, or Khan). During this time she was, essentially, ruler of Asia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%B6regene_Khatun)
Ibid.
Ibid.
Acknowledgement of image author, User:Bogomolov.PL - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52511077
Ibid.